"Isn't this great?" grinned Reeta. "We totally look like pretties!"

"This is shady! I never thought I'd be a Special Circumstance," said Apollo, speeding his hoverboard up.

"And it's all thanks to Wei and Greyson," cheered Del. "Three cheers for the first Hiders!"

All ten of the speeding specials raised their right fists. They all looked the same as they had a few weeks ago; big pretty eyes, full lips, small noses, pretty. However, these were no longer bubbleheads flying on hoverboards towards Pretty City. These were no longer Champaigners, extremely bubbleheaded bashers who survived from one hangover to the next. These were a new branch of Special Circumstances. Hiders. They were special spies, looking for bubbleheads who were a bit too bubbly to have active lesions. They were beautiful specials.

If you looked hard, you could see the differences from before their operation and now. Their eyes were no longer watery, but a bit darker and harsher, no emotions playing across them. Their muscles were a bit more noticeable. Their ears a tiny bit sharper, able to catch the slightest sound. Of course, these were just the visible details. In truth, they were walking spy machines. They could record anything with the flick of a finger. They were the ultimate spies.

Wei dipped his head; his foreign beauty displaying slanted black eyes and tanner skin. Wei was from somewhere in Asia, as Reeta recalled. He moved to Harris a few months ago. He looked for special than the rest of them. His eyes were visibly colder; he was the leader of the Hiders, the most merciless.

Greyson was more up-front about their success. "We were smart little pretties, weren't we?" he grinned. "We figured out how to escape before anyone else. No wonder we're specials now."

Reeta swerved closer to him. "Specials," she whispered to him, as if it were a promise they would be together forever as specials. Nothing would come between them. Not secrets, not anything.

"Next stop, Pretty City," said Frey.

When Reeta said her goodbyes to the other Hiders, she and Del walked into the lobby of Nomad Mansion, where they were greeted by a hug from Patti, a Champaigner.

"Reeta! Del! Where have you been? We've been so worried!"

"We've been… busy. Finding out about a new place to throw a bash," said Reeta.

"Yeah, in a new city," added Del. "In a place called Richmond."

"Wow…! A new city to bash! But it took ten of you? That's bogus," said Patti.

"Well, we wanted a majority opinion," said Del. "You know, to see how many liked it. Then we were gonna surprise the rest of the Champaigners. It was gonna be bubbly, really."

"So, is it a yes?" asked Patti, her eyes hopeful. Reeta was surprised how easy it was to read her emotions.

"No. Richmond didn't have good mansions," said Reeta. "And the pretties there were bogus. Not even the alcohol was shady."

"Shady?" asked Patti.

"What?" said Reeta.

"You just said the alcohol wasn't shady," said Patti.

"No I didn't. I said bubbly," said Reeta, glancing at Del.

"Yeah, she did," said Del. "Hey, can we go to our rooms now? We're kinda tired from the bogus trip."

"Alright. See you guys later," said Patti.

Reeta and Del walked up the back stairs to their rooms. They needed time to discuss the plan, and there would be bubbleheads on the elevator.

"I sent a video to the other Hiders of what just happened," said Del. "That should explain the situation."

"Why didn't I think to record that!" said Reeta, smacking her forehead with her hand.

"Just record all the time," said Del. "Alright, this is my floor. Bye, Reeta."

"See you." Reeta flicked her finger and started recording. She walked up to her room and pinged Greyson.

"Hey Greyson, can you come over?"

"Yeah sure, why?" asked Greyson.

"I want to send a message to Special Circumstances. I need your help, I don't really get how this 'whole body a machine' thing works."

"I'll be right there."

When Reeta woke up the next day, she was sore. She attributed it to her first time on a hoverboard since she was an ugly. Reeta pulled herself out of bed and pulled on some fresh clothes. Reeta pinged Apollo.

"Hey Apollo, what happens when we record 24/7?" she asked.

"Nothing. Everything we record goes straight to HQ," answered Apollo.

"You sure?"

"Positive. We can't run out of batteries."

"Alright, that's kinda shady. See you later. We're meeting at Jonas Mansion, at the café," said Reeta.

"Alright. Bye." Apollo hung up.

Reeta looked out the window. She got out her nanohacker from her special bag and pointed it at the hole-in-the-wall. If she was going out today for a "pretties' day out", she was going to look special doing it.

Reeta made the hole-in-the-wall spit out a stainless steal thread shirt. It looked like construction clothes. Then, she put a bungee jacket on underneath it. Her pants were the same material a sneak suit uses in armor mode, and her boots were heavy iron. Lastly, she hid a small nano-gun in her right boot. And just for the sake of looking pretty, the hole-in-the-wall spit out some cool shades. Reeta put them on. She was ready.

She strutted out of Nomad Mansion like she owned the place. She technically did, though, as Special Circumstances had given the Hiders complete authority over wardens and arrests, minders and pings, even doctors and trends. Reeta could program any pretty's lesions to act differently with the lesion-hacker, an invention of Apollo's.

Reeta turned down Race Avenue, and a ping went off in her head that told her she shouldn't be there. Technically, she was running on the city interface still. Her eyescreen wasn't set to the Special Circumstance feed, so that she could ping the Champaigners.

Walking down Race Avenue was the most daring thing Reeta had done as a special yet. Race was currently completely under construction because of a deadly fire that had started a few days after Reeta became special. Now, the street was closed off because of the hazardous chemicals and danger of falling pieces. Reeta could feel the toxins of a molten building burning the inside of her throat, slowly ripping away the flesh.

Her special nanos starting working their magic by fixing her throat, purifying the poison that entered her system. How odd, thought Reeta as a green 100% CLEAR came up on her eyescreen. She checked the breakdown report.

65% MERCURY

34% OXYGEN

1% OTHER

Reeta shivered at the numbers. Only a special, with boosted immune systems and lungs could survive this area. Reeta clicked on the 1% OTHER tab. It dropped down into dozens of harmless chemicals, except for one that Reeta found very suspicious. All the way at the bottom in tiny red print her eyescreen said:

.0004 % UNIDENTIFIABLE CHEMICALS

Unidentifiable? Why couldn't her system identify them? It knew every official chemical known to man, including some unofficial ones. Why was that in the air? Besides the high mercury levels and low oxygen, everything was fine. But what had happened? They said a fire started here. Reeta pinged Walma.

Hey Walma,

What exactly happened on Race Avenue? There are too many chemicals here to be a regular fire. Answer me immediately. Do you understand? This is vital, and I need answers.

-Reeta Request

Reeta waited silently for a minute. A single ping appeared in her message box. It was from Walma.

Come.

Reeta blinked. Come. That was all it said. Reeta pinged all of the Hiders, forwarding them the system cleansing report with a note to read everything, her ping to Walma, and Walma's response. She finished by saying she was going alone, and to send her the video of the meeting later. She set off the Special Circumstances HQ.

Reeta called her hoverboard on Jumping Street. Bubbleheads stared as the special took off, leaving their stupid beauty behind as she raced for HQ.

How had the bubbleheads not died from the chems? They would have spread to all over Pretty City, probably multiplying like that white weed the Hiders learned about in special training. Something was not right, and Reeta knew SC was behind it.